Elio de Angelis (26 March 1958 – 15 May 1986) was an Italian racing driver who participated in Formula One between 1979 and 1986, racing for the Shadow, Lotus and Brabham teams. He was killed during testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in 1986. Elio de Angelis was a competitive and highly popular presence during the Formula One circus of the 1980s, and is sometimes referred to as Formula One's "last gentleman player".

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De Angelis was born into a wealthy and prominent Roman family. His father Giulio ran a successful construction company and raced powerboats and Elio was a fine sportsman, a good tennis player and a fine skier.

He started karting when he was 14, competing against the likes of young Eddie Cheever in a 100cc kart. He quickly rose to international prominence, finishing second in the World Championship in 1975 to Francois Goldstein and winning the European title in 1976.

At the age of 19 he jumped straight into Formula 3 and, at the wheel of a Chevron, won his third ever car race at the Mugello circuit near Florence. He then went on to win the Italian Formula Three Championship in 1977. That year he also took part in some Formula 2 races with Giancarlo Minardi's Scuderia Everest and led his first race.

His debut F1 season was in 1979 with Shadow. There was a initalially deal in place with Tyrrell but in the end de Angelis ended up at Shadow with his father paying the bills. He was 20 and had the reputation of being a pay-driver. He finished 7th in his maiden Grand Prix in Argentina and closed 15th in the championship with 3 points.

At the end of the year de Angelis walked out his Shadow contract and joined Mario Andretti at Team Lotus. He was promptly sued by Shadow but it was the right thing to do

In 1984 De Angelis had a much better season, scoring a total of 34 points and finishing third in the standings with three podiums. His best result was a second place at the Detroit Grand Prix, de Angelis was the only driver to finish in the top 5 in 1984 not to score a race win, showing his consistent performances throughout the season with the improving Lotus-Renault.

1985

For 1985, De Angelis was joined by Ayrton Senna. De Angelis' second win came in the third race of the season, at the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix after 'winner' Alain Prost was disqualified when his McLaren MP4/2B was disqualified for being 2kg underweight (Senna had won the previous race in Portugal, his first F1 win, in atrocious conditions). Elio also placed third at the opening race in Brazil and claimed his last F1 pole position in Canada. He finished fifth in the championship, with 33 points, five points behind his team mate. However, de Angelis left Lotus at the end of the season when it became clear the team's efforts were being focused on the younger and faster Senna.

The 1986 Brabham-BMW, the BT55, was a radically designed car with a very low cross section. However, with a modified BMW engine, it was not effective and could not arrest Brabham's swift decline. It quickly became clear that 1986 would not be the year the team recaptured its form of the early 1980s. Nevertheless, de Angelis pushed his hardest to help develop the car.

During tests at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, the rear wing of his BT55 detached at high speed resulting in the car losing downforce on the rear wheels, which instigated a cartwheel over a sidetrack barrier and causing the car to catch fire. The impact itself did not kill de Angelis but he was unable to extract himself from the car unassisted. The situation was exacerbated by the lack of track marshals on the circuit who could have provided him with emergency assistance. A 30 minute delay ensued before a helicopter arrived and De Angelis died 29 hours later, at the hospital in Marseille where he had been taken, from smoke inhalation. His actual crash impact injuries were only a broken collar bone and light burns on his back. The tragic circumstances of his death caused radical changes to be introduced by then President Jean-Marie Balestre in the months following his accident which ultimately heralded the end of the turbo powered era in Formula One racing.

De Angelis' place in the Brabham team was subsequently taken by Derek Warwick.

de Angelis' helmet design consisted of a white background with black and red lines going down on the both sides of the helmet. His name, Elio de Angelis was written in a cursive font on the black line.

The French-Sicilian driver Jean Alesi - who broke into the sport three years after de Angelis died - wore a helmet that exactly matched de Angelis' design, in tribute to his semi-compatriot.